PowerShell - Move specific files from source sub folders to destination with identical sub folder structure

Question

I am working on a PS script to move the 5 newest files by file type from a source directory to a destination directory while preserving the subfolder structure. For example I would like to move any file starting with AB_ from ParentFolder1\FolderA, ParentFolder1\FolderB, ParentFolder1\FolderC, etc to ParentFolder2\FolderA, ParentFolder2\FolderB, ParentFolder2\FolderC.

ParentFolder1

--FolderA

----AB_1234.txt

----AB_5678.txt

----XY_9876.txt

--FolderB

----AB_1234.txt

----AB_5678.txt

----XY_9876.txt

--FolderC

----AB_1234.txt

----AB_5678.txt

----XY_9876.txt

Is there a way to tie this into a for loop? Here is what I have so far:

$source = "C:\Test"
$dest = "E:\archive"
$AB = Get-ChildItem -Path $source -include AB_* -Recurse | Where-Object {-not $_.PsIsContainer}
$XY = Get-ChildItem -Path $source -include XY_* -Recurse | Where-Object {-not $_.PsIsContainer}
$keep = 5
$logfile = "E:\_archive\temp\log_{0:MM-dd-yyyy}.log" -f (Get-Date)

if ($AB.Count -gt $keep) {
    $AB | Sort -property LastWriteTime | Select-Object -First ($AB.Count - $keep) | Move-Item -destination $dest\AB -Force -Verbose
    }
Else
    {"No AB_ files to archive." | Out-File $LogFile -Append -Force}

if ($XY.Count -gt $keep) {
    $XY | Sort -property LastWriteTime | Select-Object -First ($XY.Count - $keep) | Move-Item -destination $dest\XY -Force -Verbose
    }
Else
    {"No XY_ files to archive." | Out-File $LogFile -Append -Force}

David Brabant · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-20 06:33:44Z

2

function Move-Newest-Files 
{
    param (
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string] $source,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [string] $destination,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $true)] [array] $filter,
        [parameter(Mandatory = $false)][int] $keep = 5
    )

    try
    {
        $source = Resolve-Path $source

        $list = Get-ChildItem -Path $source -Include $filter -Recurse -Force |
            Where-Object { -not $_.psIsContainer } |
            Sort-Object -property LastWriteTime -descending | 
            Select-Object -First $keep

        foreach ($file in $list)
        {
            $destfile = $file -replace [regex]::Escape($source), $destination
            $destpath = Split-Path $destfile -Parent

            if (!(Test-Path $destpath))
                { $null = New-Item -ItemType Container -Path $destpath }

            Move-Item $file -Force -Destination $destfile
        }
    }

    catch
    {
        Write-Host "$($MyInvocation.InvocationName): $_"
    }
}

Move-Newest-Files . "D:\xyzzy" @("*.cs", "*.txt", "*.exe") 10

answered Jul 20, 2012 at 6:33

David Brabant

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2 Comments

user1539274 Over a year ago

Thanks David. Could you please define the $filter and $file variables for me?

David Brabant Over a year ago

$filter is an array build with file extensions for the files you want to keep: something like this @(".cs", ".txt", ".exe") or this @(".*")

Neil · Accepted Answer · 2012-07-19 23:23:32Z

0

You might be better off using Robocopy.

answered Jul 19, 2012 at 23:23

Neil

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2 Comments

user1539274 Over a year ago

The main reason I didn't go with xcopy or robocopy is that I couldn't find a way to keep the newest 5 files and move the rest. Is there a way to do this with Robocopy?

Neil Over a year ago

Sorry, I didn't notice that bit about the newest 5 files.

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